'Need to step up' - Kyle Walker sends strong message to Man City teammates

Kyle Walker felt he needed to force himself back into the Manchester City team at Bournemouth to fulfil his duties as captain.

Walker, 33, had missed the last four games for the Blues and his only training in that time was a few minutes on the Friday before the squad headed down to the south coast. Nevertheless, with an injury crisis at the club and Pep Guardiola asking his stars to play through the pain, Walker put his hand up to join a number of his teammates who were also nursing problems but gave it their all.

It wasn't to be on the day, with City suffering their first league defeat for 11 months as they failed to take advantage of Arsenal's lunchtime defeat to Newcastle. However, with Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku also returning the group head to Lisbon determined not to let injuries be an excuse for them and Walker thought he had to demonstrate that attitude at Bournemouth.

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"We have to be ready," he said. "I felt as good as possible. Sometimes the captain needs to step up when I could have maybe had a little bit longer but that's no excuse.

"I was there for the lads and full credit to everyone out there - people were playing with knocks, kicks, bruises, pulls and that just shows the determination and what they want to do for the badge or the club.

"We have to keep going because there's a schedule. It's a busy schedule, every three days for god knows how long. That's just the way football is at the minute.

"We stick together even more, me first and foremost as a captain have to make sure that I rally the troops up and we all stick together. Those that are injured - be there for the lads that are playing; those on the bench - be there for the lads that are playing and be ready when you're on the bench to come on and make an impact.

"The lads that came on today did fantastically well and that just shows the togetherness. We've got a squad in there that is still a very very good squad so there are no excuses. Things happen in football, we've probably had a lot of injuries at the same time to key players.

"We need to take our medicine today and it's something we can learn from. We're very happy when we win and we win a lot of time but we have to take our medicine when we lose.

"We have a fantastic urn of games unbeaten and it was always going to come to an end. You don't want it to come but sometimes you take your hat off to the opponents, say well done, and move on."